Back in the first fussbudget strip, Charlie Brown seemed like he understood that Lucy's mother was complaining when she called her daughter a fussbudget. It's not as obvious here if Charlie Brown is in on the joke. He's either forgotten, or he's exceptionally straight-faced in his sarcasm. It could really be either -- there are other strips in which Peanuts characters say sarcastic things without breaking expression even slightly. When I saw the fussbudget strips as a kid, I didn't get that the joke was on Lucy. (And to this day, I'm not sure on the origins of the word, or even how it's said. Is it really "fuss-bud-jet"?)

Schroeder's mania continues. His Beethoven fixation is slowing being made an object of fun, which culminates, I think, in his carring around signs informing people as to how many shopping days it is until Beethover's birthday.

I think this is the first time Lucy really, really rags on Charlie Brown, which of course becomes a common event in the strip. It's a chase strip, but going by the rather silly and idiosyncratic rules I've made up, not really a turnabout strip.

5 comments:

"Fussbudget" is indeed pronounced that way. I'd never thought to look it up before, but it does have a pretty interesting etymology. Its first use was in 1904, and similar words such as "fusspot" and "fussbox" were invented at around the same time. Why budget, though? It turns out that the original French meaning of "budget" is "little bag." Pretty cool.

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